20th Accordion Festival

The International Accordion Festival Vienna celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2019 and gathers the crème de la crème of accordionists for four weeks again, starting February 23. With rousing, innovative music ranging from lively to subtle.

When piano and organ maker Zyrill Demina invented the accordion in Vienna in May 1829, he changed folk music around the world. The instrument was loud, easy to learn, but at the same time transportable and inexpensive. All of a sudden, a single accordion was enough to provide rhythm and melody, liveliness and atmosphere at wedding parties and harvest festivals. A real attitude to life, if you will, that has occupied a permanent place in the world of music in Vienna down to the present day.

The diverse, mutlifaceted and also exotic music concealed within this headstrong instrument can be experienced, heard and enjoyed every year at the International Accordion Festival Vienna. The festival is celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2019 and thus once again demonstrating that there are still new things to report from the world of this widely traveled instrument. The anniversary festival starts with the opening gala in the Stadtsaal with the quintet Alma and ends with the popular regular guests Attwenger at Schutzhaus Zukunft. In between, there will be musical highlights such as Anna Steinkogler & Valentin Butt, Spaemann & Bakanic, Duo Montanaro Chavez and Klaus Paier & Asja Valcic. Of course, Otto Lechner and Die Wiener Ziehharmoniker, Dobrek Bistro and the Wiener Tschuschenkapelle will be there.

Further highlights are the Polish Motion Trio and the musical coming together of the great French accordionist and composer Richard Galliano with the Upper Austria Jazz Orchestra at the Stadtsaal, where Troi (Franziska Hatz, Tino Klissenbauer, Valentin Blum) expand their spectrum of sound with Robin Gillard and Bernd Satzinger. A silent movie matinée on each of the Sundays during the festival and accordion workshops in collaboration with the Österreichisches Volksliedwerk (Austrian Folk Song Society) complete the program. What’s more, the Accordion Festival Lounge takes place in Café Mocca on Saturdays, hosted by musician Franziska Hatz.